Tractorgirl : My fave things #4 – bowls

Hi, I’m Julie Gibbons. I’m a maker – but more, I am an admirer of the things other people make. Here, I am sharing with you some of my favourite types of handmade things.
I love a good bowl – they are both beautiful and endlessly practical, and I would say that almost certainly, everyone everywhere uses a bowl of some kind at least once a day. Cereal, soup and salad. Keys, jewellery and hairclips. Fruit, vegetables and flowers…or even simply placed to decorate a wall or shelf. I’ve pulled together a few of the beautiful pieces I’ve found recently.

Such a sweet little bowl is given elegance through the pinched in sides, which in turn echo the beautiful arabesques of the decoration. I love the little touch of patterns as fill for the main shapes – orange crosses and blue arches

There is something about these striped edges that is both whimsical and sophisticated. They kind of remind me of cartoons with their outline (not to mention the tiny cute squirrel just at the top), but perhaps it is also their simplicity. Definitely something I would be using every day!

OK OK, it’s not strictly a bowl, but isn’t it cute? I am big on anything mid-century inspired, and this fits the bill perfectly – clean, off-centre shapes, and favourite colours of red & aqua. I’m sure I would use it for sushi with extra wasabi.

Another happy bowl – I love the colours, and its quirky sense of intrigue created by floating berry branches over mysteriously large yellow and blue dots. Loving the soft, lyrical curves of the branches too.

Like many extreme things in life, this pot is a great example of how one end of a spectrum is so very close to completing a circle with the other end. Here, deep sophistication comes to meet the most humble. This very tactile piece is a tea bowl made in the traditional Zen manner – inclusive of the marks from the hands that made it, and speaking simply of the materials it is made from. It is at once both seductive and unassuming, and it is a piece to admire and respect. Once again, I hope you have enjoyed my picks! I’m looking forward to sharing some more goodies with you soon. Cheers! Julie x

About the contributor:

Julie Gibbonsis tractorgirl, a maker of homewares and accessories, and a lover of colour, texture and pattern. She completed her PhD Fine Arts in 2001, majoring in Silversmithing. Now she blogs about contemporary craft, surface design, food and books at tractorgirl.